Commonwealth//McCann sells 200 Chevrolets in 2 hrs – sight unseen

June 14, 2017

Chevrolet was only the #6 car in Argentina and was about to launch the Cruze. Commonwealth//McCann’s job was to give that a launch impact.

Its campaign made Chevrolet #2.

There’s a new car launch every other 50th of a second (approximately), but something else was happening in Argentina to get its people’s emotions firing. Half of the population was dissatisfied by the government. They upper middle class didn’t feel that its efforts were being recognised, and this had led to a conflicted social context that would be known as The Gap (La Grieta), with the country’s political scene literally divided in two.

The agency realised it could use this divide. And Chevrolet had the courage to take sides – take one side – talking to and recognising Chevrolet Cruze’s potential buyers. The campaign that came out of that is called Meritocratas (Meritocrats). It’s not a car ad. It’s a social statement. It proposes a world in which people get the rewards their efforts deserve.

“GM decided to take a bold stand, showing a deeper commitment with its target reality in the country’s social conjuncture. We may say half of the population hated the campaign, and half of it fell in love with it. Having half of Argentina enthusiastically engaged with our message was no small thing,” stated Rodrigo Polignano, Commonwealth//McCann creative director.

The Meritocrats campaign – built around a bold TV spot – also ran in OOH, social and digital media, and soon made Meritocracy a top trending topic in Argentina. It achieved almost 30 million impressions in a country of just 30 million voters, made Google searches around the term meritocracy by more than 5,000% during the campaign’s airing (from April 25 to May 5), and made the Chevrolet Cruze the most internet searched car in the country.

The campaign also offered, for the first time, an on-line pre-sale. 200 US$30k Chevrolet Cruzes were sold in less than 2 hours, without its buyers getting to actually see the car.